Twenty rural community groups in Jamaica and Guyana were recently assessed by the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) through its Pilot Beneficiary Group Capacity and Programme Assessment. This intervention, which targeted 12 communities in Jamaica and eight in Guyana, aimed to identify areas for strengthening the operations of each group to aid communities in pursuing sustainable local development.
“BNTF seeks to build the communities’ capacity to drive their own development while fostering strategic partnerships to achieve their goals. The information from the assessments will help us to identify the areas of greatest need…for further training and support,” says George Yearwood, portfolio manager of the BNTF.
In Jamaica, 126 people participated in the assessments. In Guyana, there were 70. The assessments for both countries were done from late February to mid-March 2023.
According to Richardo Aiken, BNTF community development specialist, preliminary analysis of the assessments so far has highlighted several areas where communities need skills strengthening to help the BNTF beneficiaries in its current funding cycle sustain sub-projects.
“We have also seen the need to mainstream gender and climate change considerations, enhance skills such as proposal writing and advocacy as well as aligning local interventions to the SDGs,” he said.
For more information contact Indi Mclymont-Lafayette, knowledge management consultant at the CDB’s Basic Needs Trust Fund. Tel: (876) 352-1813 or email: indi.lafayette@caribank.org
